The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
624.2008.1
Charlet Moser Ice Axe
08/12/2008
Hermione Cooper
08/12/2008
'Charlet Moser' ice axe - shortened wooden shaft with a home made spike on ferrule with four grooves.Adze and serrated pick.
wood, metal
Shaft & ferrule 48.5(l) x 10(cir)cms. Head 24(l) cms. Adze 6(w)cms.
1
on one side of head "3 CHARLET MOSER"
brown
Charlet Moser
France
Way back in the mists of time, the Charlet family were blacksmiths in the little town of Chamonix in France in the shadow of Mont Blanc.
When the Golden Age of mountaineering arrived in the 1860’s they were quick to adapt their skills in the manufacturing of agricultural tools to that of making ice axes, catering for the ever growing market of visiting alpinists.
We are not sure of the exact dates but do know that the family firm was passed from father to son for several generations and that they were continuously in competition with another Chamonix ice axe maker, Simond.
Charlet combined forces with yet another family, the Mosers, to create Charlet-Moser possibly around 1950 or maybe a little earlier.
This would be around the time the axe we have here in the collection would have been made. Not sure what the No. 3 indicates beside the Charlet-Moser logo. Perhaps a date, style, design mark, batch number or shaft length.
We have a very fine example of an early Charlet elsewhere in the collection along with other Charlet - Moser items.
Charlet- Moser were taken over by Petzl in 2000 to become Petzl Charlet though by 2018 the Charlet bit seems to have disappeared and Charlet the ice axe maker is consigned to the history books.
08/12/2008
28/04/2009
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
28/04/2009